Monday, October 31, 2011

Even though most people probably spent this last weekend celebrating Halloween, today is the actual day it should be celebrated! So I thought the best way to acknowledge this day - after the horror posts of last week - would be with the scariest post of them all! Naturally here then follows a couple of photos of your's truly - accompanied by a little poem I wrote for a friend a few years ago.

Will you be my midnight snack

Let me bite you in the back

See blood trickle down your spine

Oh, to lick up that red line

If you want my heart to win

Let me sink my teeth into your skin

Angels crying from above

In my coffin make sweet love

Until dawn there'll be no light

Stay my dear, we have all night

After this there no more is

So let's enjoy this moment of bliss

But Death will come this night too

Farewell to Life, at least for you

So now it's time to say goodbye

As I slowly suck you dry

PS. The blood in the pictures is not real blood - what ever you might think of me...It's blueberry jam. Ecologic blueberry jam!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

On this last day before Halloween we will get into the right spirit even more - with vintage ghost photos!!! Oooooo! Scary...

1930s

1863

1800s

c. 1876

c. 1920

c. 1922

1874

A lot of the time I think these old black and white ghost photos are a lot scarier than modern ones. It doesn't matter how "good" the photo looks - and today there's a lot you can do with photoshop and other computerized stuff - these old ones makes me feel more uneasy...Some of the photos above have obviously been staged, but a few look more "authentic" - or whatever you should call it. Like the one where you can see a child, or a woman, in the window...

I have never met a ghost myself, but I've heard stories from other family members who say they have. Everything in this world is built up of energy. If someone dies - especially if it's a violent death - then maybe some of the energy the dying person releases at the moment of death gets stuck here in this world...Who knows?...

Friday, October 28, 2011

So, during this Halloween week, you might now wonder what post would naturally follow the last two ones on scary ballerinas and scary witches. Well, scary vampires of course! Duh!!!

A lot of people thinks vampires are just the fictitious creatures created by authors and Hollywood - with Bram Stokers "Dracula" from 1897 as the starting point. This is not true. The legend of bloodsucking creatures of the night has existed for thousand of years, with roots in almost every country of the world. The ancient Babylonian goddess Lilith was reputed to drink the blood of babies, and some sixth-century Chinese texts talks about "revenants" - the living dead. Legends like this can be found in many, many different cultures, and they all resemble our European vampires remarkably well.

There is actually one school of thought that suggests that the very first vampire could have been Cain, slaying his brother Able. The Bible doesn't state how this murder happened, but in the Zohar, the group of books that are the base of the Jewish Kabbalah, it states explicitly that Cain bit his brother on the throat. So if you believe in the Bible, then maybe you should believe in vampires too. If you rather go for the Big Bang theory...Well...

Another part of the Bible most people know about, but doesn't really think twice about, is the last supper. The famous stand up comedian Eddie Izzard did a show where he incorporated a discussion between Christ and God about the thing I'm talking about:

Jesus: "I said, drink this wine, it is my blood."

God: "You said what?! But that's vampirism! Couldn't you have said: Drink this wine, it is a Merlot?!"

So every time, during the Holy Communion, the church goers literary drinks the blood of Christ...Normal...

In the eleventh century blood, and especially the blood of virgins, was prescribed by both witches and doctors as a cure for ailments. During the Renaissance the belief in vampires just grew and grew, and when the plague - The Black Death - swept over Europe it was easy to blame it on the vampires. One theory about this is that the people who died from the plague were being disposed of so quickly into mass graves, that sometimes sick people who weren't completely dead yet ended up in these piles. When they then tried to free themselves from the dirt thrown over them, it literally looked like the dead were rising from their graves...

Then we have the "real" vampires. Vlad Tepes Dracula being the most famous. Dracula means "son of Dracul". Dracul means "devil" or "dragon". The name Tepes - meaning "impaler" he received for impaling his enemies on stakes, where they sometimes hanged for hours before dying. Vlad was reputed to have his meals served to him seated amongst his newly impaled victims...

In the fifteenth century a respected French military officer named Gilles de Rais, was brought to trial for having killed between two hundred and three hundred children, whose blood he used in various experiments.

And then we have the so called "Blood Countess" - Countess Erzsébeth Báthory. Nowadays most people know her name because she was reputed to bathe in the blood of young girls - preferably of the nobility - to keep herself looking young. There's actually no proof of her ever doing this, but she was a sadist who enjoyed torturing and killing girls. She had four servants who helped her with this, they were all executed after trial. Countess Báthory herself was locked up in a tower room at her home, in 1610, where she later died.

Graves have been opened where the head of the skeleton has been cut off and placed between its legs. Holes in the bones has been found just above the hearts position. All to keep vampires from rising from their graves. And then we have the "chewing dead" - dug up corpses found with blood sipping out from their mouths (a common thing in decomposing bodies), certain proof that the dead person had been walking around feeding on others. To prevent this from happen a brick was placed between the teeth of a suspected vampire before burial.

People have always been afraid of the unknown. And belief in different, both good and evil, creatures has existed for ages. It's always easier to put a name on something you can't understand, so there's someone to blame when things go awry. But nowadays, when science has an explanation for everything we all know things like vampires don't exist. Right?...

Well, this was very interesting to write about. But unfortunately I don't have time to educate you, my dear readers, about this anymore right now. The sun will soon be setting here in Sweden, and I have to go to work...

Thursday, October 27, 2011

I love this time of year! It's dark and misty, with fallen leaves on the ground, and half naked branches stretching up against the dusky skies. Perfect for some witchery! I just found a blog called "Sexy Witch" that is just full of witches from all eras. Since it's Halloween time I decided to borrow a few pictures from this blog, just so we can all get into the right Halloween mode...

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

It's now pretty much exactly seven years since I managed to break myself, and so completely ruin any chances of ever having a dancing career at all! Isn't that ironic - I managed to ruin my life at Halloween!...But now - seven years later - when I've managed to work away most of the chronic pain, and with the extra help of a little pill (I'm so happy I could die...), my life doesn't feel completely ruined any more. This last year has been really good. I've been able to do so much "normal" stuff, not having to worry about the pain (no painkillers help) all the time. I was even able to go to NY! I just wish I could watch ballet. But I can't. It just makes me so depressed. I shouldn't even watch pictures of ballerinas...So, of course, that's exactly what I did...

In celebration of mine and my pain demons seventh anniversary I will now dedicate this post to ballerinas of the past!

Lycette Darsonval

Nina Vyroubova

Raisa Struchkova

Maria Tallchief

Alla Sizova

Antoinette Sibley

Alla Shelest

Moira Shearer

Anna Pavlova

Toni Lander

Lydia Kyasht

Maya Plisetskaya

Vera Karalli

Margot Fonteyn

Lubov Egorova

Liane Daydé

Alexandra Danilova

Sonia Arova

Beryl Grey

And last, but not least, Swedens own Anneli Alhanko - Prima Ballerina Assoluta - a title only given to very few, utterly talented ballerinas!

Photo: Jan Persson

About Me

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog! I'm a Swedish alternative model and burlesque dancer who loves vintage fashion, books, art, music and cats. In this blog I share a bit of my own life, but I also want it to be an inspiring place for people who love the beautiful things here in life...